Photos by Jeff Palmucci
Galleries: Cage the Elephant, Young the Giant, Bakar, Willow Avalon
Cage the Elephant stopped by the Xfinity Center last week in support of their Neon Pill tour and album. They brought several other acts along with them most notably Young the Giant.
First up, however, was Willow Avalon. I wasn’t familiar with the country singer before that night, not terribly surprising given that I don’t much listen to country music. However, I really enjoyed her set despite that. Willow first came into public view with the release of her single Drivin’. As you can tell from that her style does tend towards country but with a heavy dose of southern rock. She put on a great set, interacting with the crowd, and at one point describing the backstory to her unreleased song Homewrecker. Give her a listen even if you are not a huge country music fan.
Willow Avalon
Next up was Bakar. He did not bring a backing band. It was just him singing to a background track. There wasn’t a whole lot of interaction with the crowd, or anything really besides just singing the songs. It was a bit disappointing.
Bakar
Young the Giant took the stage next and delivered an outstanding performance. This marked their second visit to the area in recent months, following their appearance at Boston Calling this summer. The excited crowd greeted them warmly, erupting with cheers for hits like “Cough Syrup” and “Mind Over Matter.” The band members brought plenty of energy to the show, engaging with the audience throughout and elevating the overall atmosphere.
Young the Giant
Finally, Cage the Elephant hit the stage. Lead singer Matt Schultz, who broke his foot just three weeks ago during a performance in Atlanta, made a return with the help of a small scooter to support his cast. Despite the injury, I guess there “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked“, and yes they played that during the set.
Although Matt was unable to perform some of the awesome crowd dives he’s done in the past, he still managed to put on a pretty high energy show, swinging the scooter around and in general being more athletic than someone with a bum leg really ought to be. Furthermore, brother Brad was able to pick up the slack as you can see from the title photo of this story.
Their set was dripping with pyro and lasers as you can see from the setlist. The venue made us photographers sign 3 separate waivers for fear of someone losing their eyebrows. It was totally worth it.
The 22 (!) song set list cover a wide range of their back catalog including several of my favorites: “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” “Come a Little Closer,” and “Cigarette Daydreams.” In addition they played 3 from the new album “Neon Pill,” “Rainbow,” and “Good Time.”
Cage the Elephant is an awesome show to see live. Great music, a ton of energy in the performance, and (this time) cool pyro and lasers. Definitely go see this show if you can.
Cage the Elephant